SO MUCH NOPE
by Lanceeselhombre
Summary: One day, the team finds out about Keith's biggest fear. Its all shits and giggles until his fear gets in the way of missions, and something needs to be done about it.


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hey guys, this is a fanfiction idea me and a few others in a group chat decided to make. Hope you enjoy!

.o.O.o.

Keith slouched over in his seat and poked the food goo on his plate boredly with a spoon while he rested his cheek on a loose fist. He blinked slowly and sighed, sitting up straighter so he could eat. Earlier that day Shiro had all but forbidden him from going to the training deck because he didn't relax enough. Having nothing else to do, he spent the whole day laying around in the common room napping or watching the mice play amongst themselves; he'd also been told to try and bond with some of the others. Needless to say, he was bored.

Keith shoveled a spoonful of the bland goo into his mouth, scowling irately it at his food like it had offended him. Maybe he wouldn't be so upset if someone had done something with him. He wouldn't have minded cooking with Hunk or sitting and talking with Pidge while she tinkered with something, hell he would've even listened to Lance's cheesy jokes if it would give him something to do.

The red paladin blinked again as he aggressively ate another bite. Maybe he could get Shiro to spar with him. That would still be considered bonding right? Who said two guys couldn't bond over punching each other in the face?

Plan set in his mind, Keith began to eat his meal like a normal person. His eyes glanced up, searching for something else to look at other than the green goop in front of him. His eyes focused and a sudden, deep panic flared inside his chest and he broke out in a sudden cold sweat. Before he was aware of what was happening his body stood up and backpedalled over his chair of its own accord, causing him to fall to the ground and bang his head on the floor. He sat up on his elbows and shook the stars from his vision, completely confused. Where had that sudden panic come from?

He looked back to where he had been sitting at the table and saw the reason for his episode; hanging from a transparent thread over his plate of food goo was a small, slender black spider. The fear that had begun to fade flared again and his muscles locked. He wanted to back farther away from the little monster looming menacingly over the table, but he couldn't find the strength to move.

When Keith fell over his chair the resounding bang caught the attention of everyone else at the table. All heads swung in his direction, staring at the vacant place where he once sat before looking down to his current position on the floor. Shiro was the first to speak up. "Keith, you okay?" He asked, confusion and worry evident in his voice.

Keith didn't answer him, at least not with words. When his body locked his mouth had as well, leaving him speechless. His eyes followed the spider carefully, horrified by the sight but too terrified to look away, afraid that if he stopped watching it the spider would jump at him.

Shiro followed Keith's unwavering, fearful glare to the spider, his eyes instantly softening. He knew he shouldn't have, but he couldn't stop the small chuckle that made its way past his lips. Keith spared a fraction of a second to glare at him before snapping his attention back to the spider, obviously frustrated that the one person on the ship that understood his fear was laughing.

"I'm sorry." Shiro quickly apologized. He knew that Keith's fear wasn't funny. His apology only confused the rest of the people at the table further.

Then next person to speak was Lance. He saw Shiro follow Keith's glare and decided to do the same, his eyes landing on the tiny black mass hanging precariously in the air. Unlike Shiro, he did not hold back the deep, bellowing laugh that arose in response to his teammates predicament.

"Dude, you're seriously scared of a tiny little spider?" Lance laughed, hunching over his plate of goo and holding his stomach with one hand. "How did you survive by yourself in the desert?" He asked, almost howling as tears formed in his eyes.

Keith refused to look away from the spider, but it was obvious to everyone but Lance that the brunette's words had hurt him. His face flushed a humiliated red and he grit his teeth, a low growl building in the back of his throat. Angry tears pricked at his eyes as he hung his head as low as he dared, barely able to keep his eye on the source of his fear in the corner of his eye.

Somehow, the teen was able to gather the courage to get to his feet and without a second thought ran from the room, leaving its inhabitants in silence. They were all still for a moment, then all eyes snapped towards Lance, who had straightened up in embarrassment and regret. Seeing the humiliated expression on his teammate's face made him realize what he had said and done was wrong, but he knew he couldn't take it back.

"That wasn't right." Shiro said, his tone level and non accusatory despite the look of disappointment and slight irritation in his face. He stood and silently walked over to the spider that had caused the whole incident and squished it with a napkin before throwing the napkin away, then sitting back down. "You need to apologize to him."

Lance stared at his lap, a flustered blush creeping up on his cheeks. He knew he screwed up, he didn't need convincing after the look on Keith's face. Still, he dreaded having to search out the fiery red paladin. "Do I have to?" He asked in vain, already knowing the answer to his question.

"Yes." Shiro responded. "The sooner the better."

.o.O.o.

Keith laid on his stomach in his bed, face tightly pressed into a pillow as hot angry tears poured down his cheeks. Why did Lance have to laugh at him like that? He didn't understand the bubbling panic that had kept him frozen to the spot when he so desperately wanted to get away. He didn't understand the humiliation of fearing such a small and harmless everyday animal to the point of tears.

He growled through his frustrated cries and punched the pillow hard, imagining it was Lance's face. He knew he was working himself up by asking those questions, but he couldn't stop. He punched the pillow again, hoping it would release some of his anger. He was so fucking mad.

Keith wasn't left to himself for long before someone was knocking on his door. At first he ignored the gentle wraps, continuing to wallow in his humiliation and anger but the knocks only grew louder.

"Go away!" Keith roared at the door, his voice no where near as threatening as he had wanted it to be with the tears pouring down his face and the cries spilling from his mouth. "Just leave me alone!" He yelled as he pressed his face back into the pillow in his arms, muffling his last words.

The knocking stopped and Keith sighed internally. Instead, a voice drifted into the room from behind the door. "Keith, can I talk to you?" Lance murmured, barely audible over Keith's crying, his voice quiet and slightly remorseful.

Keith shook his head violently into the pillow, knowing Lance couldn't see him. "GO AWAY!" He screamed, straining his throats with the intensity of the words. He somehow felt that he had managed to make Lance flinch and he would have grinned if it weren't for the tears still streaming down his cheeks.

It was silent again after that. Keith continued to cry until he had no tears left and his throat was raw. He was still extremely upset and angry at Lance but he was finally over crying about the incident. It was such a stupid thing to cry over; all Lance had done was laugh at him for being scared of a spider. It shouldn't have affected him at all and he should have given a snarky comeback and left it at that, but he couldn't. Why did it affect him so deeply to be laughed at by his teammate?

Keith sat up on his bed and let himself catch his breath, eyeing the door irritatedly. "Are you going to stand there all day?" He growled, his voice raspy and broken from the crying.

"If I have to." Lance replied quietly. He had stood there silently while Keith cried to himself, waiting for the teen to calm down in hopes of getting to talk to him. He really did feel bad for laughing at him earlier, and by the sound of it his words had affected Keith more than he originally thought.

It was quiet for a moment before Keith answered. "You can come in." He finally said, his voice low and resigned. Lance pressed his hand to the panel next to the door and stepped through the doorway when it slid away. The door closed behind him and he looked over at the figure on the bed.

Keith sat cross legged in the middle of the bed hugging a pillow to his chest that was visibly wet with tears. Even though his face was downcast Lance could see the still fresh tear tracks and deep blush on his cheeks. Lance was silent, not knowing what to say to fix what he had done.

Keith sniffed, barely lifting his head to glare angrily at the other. "Did you come here to talk to me or stare at me?" He demanded, his tone dark.

Lance managed to shake his head, still unable to form words. A moment later he found his voice and said, "I'm sorry for laughing at you." It was a simple and unoriginal statement but it was the best he could come up with.

"Fuck you." Keith growled. He didn't mean to say that, he didn't mean to say anything, but his mouth had a mind of its own. He gripped his pillow tighter and rested his chin on it, refusing to look at Lance, instead glaring at the wall.

Lance gave a small laugh, attempting to lighten the mood. His small and awkward smile fell when he saw his friend's expression darken further. Okay, laughing is a bad idea. He thought to himself, trying to find something else to say that wouldn't make him sound like an ass. Unable to find words, he instead walked over to the bed and sat down next to Keith.

Lance internally sighed a sigh of relief when Keith didn't move away from him. He sat quietly next to the teen, listening to his soft sniffles, still trying to figure out what to say. "I'm scared of giraffes." Lance said finally.

"What?" Keith said, his tone carrying a little less bite than a few minutes before. He didn't look at Lance when he spoke; he was still too pissed off to look at him.

"I'm scared of giraffes." Lance repeated. "When I was eight my school took my class on a field trip to the zoo. There was this huge giraffe there; she was at least 30 feet tall. They let us all take turns feeding her and they made us stand in a line in front of these stairs that led to a platform where we could feed her. While one of the other kids was being taught how to feed a giraffe she leaned down and bit my shirt and lifted me 30 fucking feet into the air." Lance explained, his tense expression melting into one of soft remembrance.

Keith listened to him silently while he rambled, wondering why Lance was telling him this. Giraffes had nothing to do with spiders or with him. Despite himself he didn't voice his thoughts, letting Lance talk. It was slightly calming to listen to someone else talk and it soothed the flames of his anger.

"I was so scared. I was dangling by my shirt above a metal fence. The employees tried to coax the giraffe to let go of me for over a half hour." He said. "She eventually let me go in favor of food and I feel into the hay bales behind the fence. I pissed my pants when she dropped me."

Keith smirked into the pillow, his tear tracks dry but his red blush still remained on his face. "Pidge would have spazzed." He commented. The green paladin was terrified of heights.

Lance nodded, a loose smile spreading across his face. "Yeah, she really would." He agreed, looking at Keith's face, unable to meet his side turned eyes. After a moment Keith turned his head to look Lance in the eyes, his own still slightly watery.

Lance sighed, his expression turning more serious. "I'm really sorry for earlier." He apologized again. "I shouldn't have laughed at your fear."

Keith was quiet while he mulled over his friend's words. His gaze was hard and tense compared to Lance's calm and relaxed one, and it was starting to make Lance a little uncomfortable. Finally, Keith answered, "You can be such an ass sometimes, you know that right?"

Lance laughed. That was the closest thing to an acceptance he was going to get from him. "Yeah, sorry about that." He said, his laugh relaxing into a happy smile. "We should really work on that fear. It's not very heroic to be screaming like a girl at the sight of a spider." He commented, earning himself a half hearted punch to the shoulder.

"Oh shut up." Keith scolded, a small smile creeping up on his features. "What are the chances we'll see a spider during a mission?" He ignored the fact that Lance had said we and not you.

"You'd be surprised." Lance commented. He cupped his hands and pretended to throw something that was inside them at Keith, saying, "Maybe like right now!"

Keith dropped the pillow and screamed, pushing away from Lance and hitting his back on the wall behind him. It took a second for him to realize Lance had been bluffing, causing another blush to come over his face. He leaned over to Lance and punched him again in the shoulder, this time hard. "You little bitch." He spat out harmlessly, a smile still on his lips.

Lance held his hands up and laughed. "Okay okay, sorry." He rubbed his shoulder where he had been punched; that hurt. "Seriously though, you need to do something about that phobia."

"It's not a phobia." Keith muttered, picking his pillow up and laying it in his lap. He kneaded at it gently and pouted like a child.

Lance shook his head. "Bullshit." He said. "You literally just screamed and almost pissed yourself cause I faked throwing a spider at you." He taunted as he shoved his rival's knee jokingly.

Again, his taunt earned him a punch. "Did not!" Keith yelled, offended by the last part. "Says the guy who peed his pants cause he fell into a hay bale." He taunted back.

Lance held his chest and faked a hurt expression. "Oh Keith, a mi me duele el corazon!" He cried as he grabbed a fistful of his shirt, throwing his head to the side dramatically like an actor.

Keith rolled his eyes. "Drama queen."

Lance smiled. "So are we good?" He asked, happy he finally managed to get Keith to taunt him back like they usually did.

Keith nodded. "Yeah."

.o.O.o.

A mi me duele el corazon= my heart hurts


End file.
